Houses In Your Heart
by Randomestfandoms
Summary: Caitlin Watson had always been a Loser, ever since she met Stanley Uris. And then she met Bill, Richie, and Eddie, and the five became inseparable. And Caitlin would do anything to protect her friends: blackmail Greta Bowie, punch Henry Bowers, fight a fucking clown, Cait would do any of it. And Pennywise is going to have to learn what happens when someone messes with her boys


_Caitlin Watson was a Loser, she'd always been a Loser, ever since she met Stanley Uris when they were four. And then she met Bill, Richie, and Eddie, and the five became inseparable. And Caitlin, always the toughest of the bunch, would do anything to protect her friends: blackmail Greta Bowie, punch Henry Bowers, fight a fucking clown, Cait would do any of it. And Pennywise is going to have to learn what happens when someone messes with her boys._

Disclaimer- hopefully this goes without saying, but I don't own anything except for my ideas

Warning for Hockstetter being creepy as hell

**Houses In Your Heart**

The Last Day Of School

It's common knowledge, in a town like Derry, that nothing good ever lasts. It always shrivels up and disappears, leaving a hollow town of hollow people in its wake. Caitlin Watson knew this. So in the summer of '89, a few months after the disappearance of Georgie Denbrough, she made a decision. She was not going to lose her friends. Not now, not ever. She would grab them, and hold onto them forever, and never, ever let them go. She would follow them to the ends of the earth, or, as the case may be, into the sewers of Derry. But that's not how this story starts.

No, this story starts with innocence, with hope. It starts with eight children who have no idea about the evil lurking in their town, who are unaware of the horrors they will soon face. It starts with the last day of school, with a final bell, and with a protective ray of sunshine by the name of Caitlin Watson finishing her last class of the year.

As soon as the final bell rang, Caitlin was twisting around in her seat. Her brown - and newly pink - hair swung over her shoulder as she beamed at the boy sitting two desks behind her.

"Need any help carrying that?" She asked, gesturing to Ben's diorama.

"I'm alright." He smiled bashfully. "It's the first day of summer, you should be with your friends."

"You're my friend too," she corrected him.

He smiled brighter, but shook his head. "I'm alright, Caitlin."

Caitlin nodded as she stood. Shouldering her backpack, she gave him another beaming smile. "If you say so. Have a good summer, Ben, don't be a stranger!"

She left the room with a final wave, making her way outside to find her boys. It wasn't hard to do, but Cait's heart constricted when she saw Patrick shoving Stan into the ground, ripping the yarmulke from his head.

"Hey fuckface!" All eyes turned to her and oh, she didn't mean to say that out loud. "Let him go!"

"And what'll I get if I do, Kitten?" Patrick sneered, abandoning Stan to approach the younger girl.

Caitlin froze when she felt his hot breath on the back of her neck, hoping that her boys - all wide eyes and ready to run - wouldn't pick up on how scared she was. She had to take care of them, had to protect them, and her own terror was secondary; it had to be secondary. No matter how gross, how creepy, how absolutely horrifying Patrick was - just like Henry Bowers - she had to suck it up and keep them away from her fellow Losers.

"I-" she started, before falling silent again.

"The way I see it, you owe me something big for this. Bigger than our previous arrangements," he told her, his whisper sounding like a scream, one that only she could hear. "You know what we've talked about. Maybe bring one of your boys too, maybe four-eyes."

Although he didn't know it, that was exactly what Caitlin needed to hear.

"_Nobody_ touches my boys," she hissed, pulling away quickly. "Not now, not ever. And if you try, I'll fucking kill you myself."

He was clearly about to say something - or punch her - but a jerk of Henry's head had him stepping back. Just out of arm's reach, he continued to hover over her shoulder.

"Leave the little whore alone, Hockstetter," he drawled, "you don't know what you might catch from her."

Patrick opened his mouth to argue, but Caitlin beat him to it.

"We can… negotiate that deal later," she offered, heart tight in her chest. "When they aren't around."

"We will," he said; a promise, a threat, and Cait knew that he would make sure that she kept her word.

But he rejoined his friends, reluctant but still obedient to Henry, and Cait felt the tension start to leave her shoulders as they turned to leave.

"You s-s-suck, Bowers," Bill spat.

"Shut up, Bill," Caitlin hissed - didn't he see that she'd just gotten them out of a situation? Did he really have to make it worse?

"Did you s-s-s-say something, B-b-b-Billy?" Bowers mocked. "You got a free ride this year cause of your little brother. Ride's over, Denbrough. This summer's gonna be a hurt train for you and your friends."

He wiped a handful of spit on Bill's cheek before the gang stormed away, and Caitlin could feel her fellow Losers relax as they left. But not her. No, Caitlin didn't relax until well after Stan had pried her hands open from the fists she'd made, until after he'd carefully wiped away the flecks of blood where her nails had split open her palms; not until Bowers and his goons were well and truly out of sight and they'd mounted their bikes to head home.

"You need to stop aggravating him, Billy," She said softly.

"H-h-he's a d-dick, Cait."

"Of course he's a dick, and Hoecksetter is a fucking psychopath. But we don't need to give them a reason to be even worse."

She braced herself for Bill's argument - the two leaders had been arguing more and more later - but Eddie interrupted.

"Are your hands okay?" he asked quickly. "You're bleeding - how did you get cut? Have you disinfected it? Do you _know_ how many infections you can get, Cait? Do you want to die of AIDS?"

"Breathe, Eddie," she told him, as soft as she always was when he spiralled. "I scratched my palms, I guess; it only just happened. Stan's been taking care of it but you're the expert."

The smaller boy relaxed visibly, as she knew he would. It was always best, she had found, to offer him reassurance but to let him do what he needed. Which was why, despite still being shaken up from Hockstetter, she made no objections when he grabbed her hands, wiping at them roughly with disinfectant before covering every cut - four crescents on each palm - with a bandaid.

"I wish they'd go missing," Richie said, for lack of any other subject change.

"They're probably the ones doing it," Eddie retorted.

Cait smiled softly, appreciating how willing the boys always were to move on, to not push. They might have thought that they were distracting her from Eddie's neuroses rather that Hockstetter's harassment, but the effect was the same and she loved them for it.

Her smile grew when Stan took her hand in his. Eddie and Richie had started off ahead of them, walking their bikes down the street, and Bill was unlocking his, so it was just the two of them.

"Are you alright?" He asked gently.

"I'm good," she told him quickly. "Eddie patched me up."

"That's not what I meant, Cait. I know you want to protect us, but Hockstetter-"

"I can handle it, Stan," she promised. "I can handle him."

"You don't have to handle it alone, though," he said. "You're allowed to need us too."

She gave him a small, sad smile. "I know. Doesn't mean I'm going to stop protecting my boys."

She started when she felt someone grab her free hand, settling when she realized that it was just Bill.

"W-w-we c-can protect you t-t-too," he told her.

"I know you can, Big Bill," she said, squeezing his hand. "You always have my back. But," she chuckled, "we should probably catch up to the other two before they get themselves killed."

It was with bright smiles and laughs that the three separated, mounting their bikes with familiar ease as they chased after their best friends. It was also, they would soon learn, the last time they would ever truly be children; the last time they would be innocent, unaware of the evils lurking beneath the town.

**-Fin-**

Thanks for reading! I really hope you enjoyed the prologue! I've been really obsessed with Cait lately and I'm super hyped that I was able to get this chapter finished for Halloween! And, if you're curious about her, feel free to visit me on tumblr Randomestfandoms-ocs


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